For 27-year-old director Paul Thomas Anderson, the thrilled critical response to his film Boogie Nights--the story of an innocent young man whose foot-long love gland transforms him into a porn star of the late Seventies and early Eighties--must make the sophomore director feel like he's similarly endowed. The film is based on a short Anderson made when he was 17, called The Dirk Diggler Story. Ten years later, it's screen history. In the interim Anderson made another short, Cigarettes and Coffee, that got him into the Sundance Institute's Filmmaker's Workshop and that led to his first feature, Sydney. Starring Samuel L. Jackson and Gwyneth Paltrow, it was retitled Hard Eight and quickly faded away. We asked Contributing Editor David Rensin to talk with Anderson as Boogie Nights went into wide release. Rensin says, "We met at a popular Valley deli, where the waitresses knew and adored Anderson. He sat down, rummaged in his huge briefcase for his glasses, and with a smile announced, 'Let me wash my hands before I begin the interview.' I think that he also washed them afterward."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: You wait until the end of Boogie Nights to show Dirk Diggler's 13-inch cock. Did you ever think of revealing the goods sooner?

Paul Thomas Anderson: In the earliest assembly of the movie, we showed it in his first sex scene. At the time, I wasn't sure if it was something we should see immediately, to get it out of the way. But when I watched the film, I realized it had to be saved for the end. Metaphorically, it's the come shot. It's everything you could hope for from a movie ending. David Mamet once said, "The last five seconds separates the men from the boys." I took that quote to heart and ran with it.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Do you think your initials--P.T.A.--had anything at all to do with Boogie Nights' getting an R from the movie ratings board?

Paul Thomas Anderson: I'm not sure, but I loved dealing with the MPAA people. When we submitted the movie, it was NC-17. I said, "I can't argue with you." What they said next surprised me: "We just want you to know we love this movie, and we want it to be NC-17." I said, "What do you mean?" They said, "We created that rating for movies like this, movies that deal with explicit material but that are also legitimate films. Then Showgirls came along and made us look like girls, sort of wiped the rating back to an X. So we need a movie like this." That changed my mind. I understood, but I said, "I can't be the guinea pig." Ultimately, only 40 seconds had to come out, which was basically of Mark Wahlberg's ass, humping. That was fine, since it didn't interfere with the storytelling.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: Did you ever consider ex-porn-star-gone-legit-actor Traci Lords for a role?

Paul Thomas Anderson: No. A little too wink-wink nudge-nudge. Also, Bob Shea, the president of New Line, suggested it, so I guess I rebelled. I must have a problem with authority. [Pauses] However, I did cast Veronica Hart. She's not only a great person, she's the Meryl Streep of porn. She plays the judge in the custody hearing between Amber Waves and her ex-husband.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: One issue Boogie Nights takes on is the debate over making porn on film or videotape. Why all the fuss about new technology?

Paul Thomas Anderson: In a business that can be demoralizing, you really need to latch on to any dignity you can get. When porn was on film, anyone in that industry could have drawn a quick, straight line to so-called legitimate movies. It was 24 frames a second, through light, up on a screen. Video took that away. Some industry people argued that video was good because it got the product into the home for private viewing, and consumers didn't have to bear the stigma of going to an adult theater. That's true, but it's also a desperate justification by those who were shoved into a new technological arena--whether they wanted to go or not. I absolutely believe that video ruined the business. Inherent in using film is the need to figure out a plan of action beforehand. Where do we want to put this camera? We only have so much time, money and film. That translated into a more focused product. Video brought a new mentality: "We'll shoot a bunch of stuff. We don't really have to plan this because we can cut it into something later." During my research I went to a porn shoot done on videotape. There was no time between setups. At a certain point there was nothing romantic going on, nothing remotely emotional or sexual. It was just fucking. It was torture, period. No trace of human contact.

Q 5

PLAYBOY: The adult movie theater is dead, but aren't we left with a generation of moviegoers who have a Pavlovian reaction to the smell of Lysol?

Paul Thomas Anderson: [Laughs, claps hands] Wow. That's funny. Hey, you know what? Fuck my answer--just make sure that question is in there.